INSTINCT. 257 



field-mouse, and the bird called the nut-hatch, (sitta europcsa^) 

 which live much on hazel-nuts, and yet they open them each 

 in a different way. The first, after rasping 1 off the small end, 

 splits the shell into two with his long fore teeth, as a man does 

 with his knife ; the second nibbles a hole with his teeth, so 

 regular as if drilled with a wimble, and yet so small that one 

 would wonder how the kernel can be extracted through it ; 

 while the last picks an irregular ragged hole with its bill ; but 

 as this artist has no paws to hold the nut firm while he pierces 

 it, like an adroit workman, he fixes it as it were in a vice, in 

 some cleft of a tree, or in some crevice, when, standing over 

 it, he perforates the stubborn shell. We have often placed 

 nuts in the chink of a gate-post, where nut-hatches have been 

 known to haunt, and have always found that those birds have 

 readily penetrated them. While at work, they make a rapping 

 noise that may be heard at a considerable distance.* 



You that understand both the theory and practical part of 

 music, may best inform us why harmony or melody should so 



* Instinct is not invariably infallible, as Professor Rennie justly 

 observes, for we can discover many mistakes of this faculty. For 

 example, when Dr Arnold discovered that wonderful vegetable produc- 

 tion, the rafflesia Arnoldii, in Sumatra, which is said to smell like 

 tainted beef, he observed a swarm of flies gathered around it, for the 

 purpose, as he supposed, of depositing their eggs upon it, as they no 

 doubt imagined it to be tainted carrion. 



The circumstance of insects mistaking the rafflesia for putrid meat, is 

 not a singular one, as we have similar mistakes happening in this country. 

 The common flesh fly (musca vomitorea) often lays its eggs in the fetid 

 sorts of phalli and agarici, apparently supposing them genuine flesh. 



The earth-worm, which is instinctively afraid of moles, flies to the 

 surface of the earth whenever it finds the ground shaking, whether by 

 man or animals. Boys who wish to capture these poor animals, take 

 advantage of this natural dread of an enemy, and by sinking a spade or 

 stake into the ground, move it backwards and forwards, and the alarmed 

 worms ascend to the surface. It is mentioned by Dr Anderson, in his 

 Bee, that the lapwing (tringa vanellus} is aware of this instinctive 

 fear of the earth-worm, and when other food is scarce, it pats the ground 

 with its feet, till the earth-worms, mistaking it for a mole approaching, 

 ascend to the surface, when they are immediately devoured by the cunning 

 bird. 



The flight of the cuckoo being very like that of a hawk, it is frequently 

 pursued by small birds, thinking it one of these fell destroyers. 



Linnaeus mentions that at Tornea, there is a meadow, or bog, which 

 abounds with water hemlock, (cicuta virosa,} which the cattle eat, and 

 are poisoned ; from fifty to a hundred head of cattle die annually from this 

 cause. 



